Episode 9 - Retreat To Move Forward
25 March 2012
Synopsis: Jack asks Liz to accompany him on his corporate retreat because he is worried about how he will be perceived after leaving GE at the end of last season. Once there though he is welcomed back by the elite and Liz is left out. When Jack asks Liz to behave more appropriately she ends their friendship. But when Jack embarrasses himself, she goes to great lengths to cover up for him. Back at 30 Rockefeller Centre Tracy Jordan is diagnosed with diabetes and Kenneth is desperate to get him to eat more healthily. Jenna tries to method act like Janis Joplin and when Frank messes with her she ends up sleeping with him. The next day he wants to keep it quiet but her ego won’t let him.
The Good: The most authentic part of 30 Rock is the friendship between Liz and Jack. Sometimes it is the only relatable emotion which the show creates. The growth of their odd couple friendship is one of the reassuring encouraging things about a show which otherwise produces so much ill conceived nonsense.
The analogy of camp with the corporate retreat makes Liz and Jack’s situation easy to appreciate. And the sheer embarrassing lengths Liz goes to to cover up Jack’s blunder with the microphone are a touching tribute to how much their friendship means to her. The fact that she can see through his bravado to his true feelings is why they are friends and this episode reinforces that in generally amusing fashion. Jack’s psyching up routine fits his character and allows us an amusing glimpse and Liz’ low self esteem version of it – “Stop sweating you idiot!” It was nice to see the Bush administration gay bomb joke referenced again (from 215). Little moments like that imply that even silly plot developments haven’t just been forgotten (see Comic Highlight).
Frank telling Jenna to check out Wikipedia for info about Janis Joplin is an idea rich with comic potential (see The Bad). At least they started with a good joke. As Jenna leaves, Frank jumps on wikipedia and asks if anyone knew that “Janis Joplin speed walked everywhere and was afraid of toilets.” Toofer says he had heard that and Cerie, paying no attention to what’s going on demonstrates the effectiveness of the prank by saying “Was she really?”
The Bad: The Frank and Jenna storyline is a great example of what is wrong with 30 Rock. Instead of using wikipedia to make her do embarrassing things and build up the question of how far they can push her, the joke immediately turns too ridiculous to be believable as Jenna prepares to eat a cat. Seriously? Eating a cat? That joke is so pathetic that Jenna really shouldn’t have believed it, her character may be ignorant but she hasn’t been portrayed as brain dead. So the story moves on to Jenna and Frank sleeping together. She is so angry that he isn’t bragging about it that she tells everyone (that makes sense because of her ego). But Frank is not happy and it soon emerges that he is sleeping with several less than agreeable women in the building. But we don’t know anything about Frank which would make this a fun story. His character is about as generic as is possible and so this “twist” is flat and doesn’t seem funny. The underlying problem is that we don’t know who Jenna and Frank really are, they don’t seem like real people and we have no reason to care about them at all. The basis of all humour is a context which the audience understands. But the context here is so thin that Frank and Jenna are just basic stereotypes and their antics have no resonance whatsoever.
Slightly better is Kenneth being a good person and desperately trying to convince Tracy to change his diet and manage his diabetes. Kenneth’s childish attempts to scare Tracy are consistent with his character but not very funny or interesting to watch. The punch line that a messed up Jenna manages to scare Tracy straight is predictable.
Much of the corporate humour is such childish satire that I wonder who it really amuses. You see L.U.N.C.H = Lego utilisation for negating crisis hierarchies. While C.L.A.S.S = Consuming lunch and simple socialising. Then there’s “handshakefulness” and “nicknamisation.” Is the corporate world being satirised or are the comedy writers the ones being made fun of?
Comic Highlight: Liz reminisces about when she and Jenna used to do improv entertainments at corporate retreats. We jump to them being asked to pretend to be Sling Blade and Oprah on a date. Liz as Sling Blade says “I sure do like them french fried potatoes” to which Jenna replies “No you don’t Oprah!” Not only is it a simple logical punch line but it gives you a sense of Liz and Jenna’s history together which helps add to the authenticity of the show.
The Bottom Line: 30 Rock’s humour can be so damagingly stupid and childish sometimes it really grates. I wish they would characterise their secondary characters properly because without proper context their behaviour isn’t very funny.
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